world, an insider during this period, we did very little to stop them, especially in 2010, under the obama administration, when they took a very hands off attitude saying we're not going to get involved in the outcome of the iraqi political debate, we just want a free and fair election. well, to my mind, that is a mistake. it's proven to be a mistake in practice allowing, essentially, pro-iranian elements to seize power in iraqi, but it's really a mistake not made by the fore bearers in the days of the cold war. in the early days of the cold war, the truman and eisenhower administration did not take the attitude, we don't care if communism comes to power in france, italy, or japan, as long as there's fair elections, that's all we care about. that was not their attitude. in fact, they were willing to pour covert american funds into political campaigns which, on some level could be seen as prejudice to the free and fair elections, which i think they under correctly to be in the long term interest to preserve democracy and freedom in those countries. we have to rethink the checks we put on ou